The present invention relates to an electric mail processing apparatus for receiving and processing an electric mail such as image data and the like.
A conventional electric mail processing apparatus receives and processes image data as an electric mail sent from a mail server. The conventional electric mail processing apparatus does not send an instruction to the mail server to delete the electric mail until a printing operation is complete (refer to Patent Reference).
Patent Reference: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-152450
In the conventional electric mail processing apparatus, when it takes time longer than a specific level to process the electric mail, the conventional electric mail processing apparatus may redundantly performs a same process (such as a printing process of the electric mail or a transmission process of the electric mail to other device).
More specifically, the conventional electric mail processing apparatus may encounter a trouble such as a sheet jam during the printing operation of the electric mail. Further, the conventional electric mail processing apparatus may encounter a communication trouble during the transmission process of the electric mail to other device. When such a trouble occurs while the conventional electric mail processing apparatus processes the electric mail, the conventional electric mail processing apparatus may not be able to complete the process of the electric mail after a specific period of time.
In this case, the conventional electric mail processing apparatus sends an instruction to the mail server, so that the mail server sends the electric mail at a specific interval. In response to the instruction, the mail server sends the same electric mail to the conventional electric mail processing apparatus one more time. Accordingly, the conventional electric mail processing apparatus stores a plurality of electric mails having same contents in a storage unit thereof.
Accordingly, the conventional electric mail processing apparatus sequentially processes the electric mails having same contents and stored in the storage unit thereof. As a result, the conventional electric mail processing apparatus redundantly performs the same process (such as the printing process of the electric mail or the transmission process of the electric mail to other device). Therefore, the conventional electric mail processing apparatus consumes an extra amount of supplies such as sheets and the like, and performance of a control unit is temporarily lowered due to the redundant process.
In view of the problems described above, an object of the present invention is to provide an electric mail processing apparatus capable of solving the problems of the conventional electric mail processing apparatus. In the electric mail processing apparatus, even when it takes a long time to process an electric mail, it is possible to prevent a same process from being redundantly performed.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.